Doesn't Get Much Easier
by azure-aster
Summary: One-shot. Dick doesn't like when things spiral out of control. Artemis doesn't seem to either. Artemis & Robin gen.


**Watching "Alpha Male" was painful. Poor Aqualad. ;_; Team needs to get their shit together and start showing more appreciation towards him.**

**Centered on Artemis and Dick on this fic. It's a bit more of a character study than anything. I actually hadn't intended to make the story angsty towards the end. But by watching the recent episode, I feel like the last half just formed on its own.**

**And I feel so silly. I'm shipping so many couples in the show, but I don't like any of the implied/canon couples. Haha, especially with Artemis. I used to ship her with Kaldur, now I ship her with Robin and Miss Martian. xD Omg, what in the world is wrong with me?  
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**Hope you like the fic. :) And please comment/critique/point out spelling/grammar mistakes/review, etc.  
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><p>He knew who Artemis was. He knew about her family, particularly about her father and sister. He knew that she didn't want to follow their footsteps, that joining the team was what she desired. He knew she was relatively knew to the superhero biz.<p>

That was why, though the rest of the team didn't exactly welcome her with open arms, he had accepted her rather quickly. While Wally insisted on giving her a hard time, Dick did the opposite. He remembered the arrow that she'd shot that saved his best friend. Maybe Wally easily forgot moments when he's almost killed, but Dick didn't. After all, life was a lot more enjoyable with the speedster around.

Knowing Artemis' secrets was a big responsibility. Bruce trusted him with the information, and he was not to reveal it to any of his teammates. Although, even if Bruce hadn't warned him, Dick wouldn't have spread her secret around anyways. It was her secret, her past. Dick knew how important one's past is.

Personally, Dick found her interesting. Even if Bruce hadn't told him about her relationship with Cheshire, he would've still liked her.

He just couldn't resist going up to her on her first day at Gotham Academy. He pulled out his phone, set it to the camera, and walked up behind her."We'll laugh about this someday," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling up at his phone.

Once the flash went off, he slipped away before she could get a better look at him.

"Dick? What was that about?" Barbara asked.

"Nothing," Dick laughed softly, "just being friendly to the new girl."

Barbara said nothing and walked off. Dick followed her while checking the picture he just took. It turned out well, though Artemis looked completely confused. Dick snickered, prompting Barbara to cast him a suspicious glare. "Sorry, sorry," he grinned, holding both of his hands up.

Artemis ended up sharing one class with Dick: Biology. Bette helped Artemis find her way to the building before heading to her own class. Dick watched as Artemis received her seat number from the teacher. She eventually found her spot, which was two rows in front of Dick's seat. Dick smiled to himself and resumed fiddling with his phone below his desk.

After class, he managed to catch up to her and walked beside her. "So... how do you like Gotham Academy?" he asked.

"It's, uh... it's okay," Artemis said as she tugged on the ends of her skirt, "Hey, you're the guy who took that picture in the morning."

"Dick Grayson, at your service," Dick said, grasping her hand and bowing his head slightly, "And your name is?"

"Artemis."

"Like the Greek goddess? The one who was an archer?"

"I guess."

"Well, Miss Goddess, thinking of joining any clubs?"

She tensed at the nickname; she was just as subtle as Wally. _That _was saying something. Dick smiled innocently as he waited for her response.

"What clubs are there?" she asked with a slight scowl.

"Let's see... there's robotics, drama, environmental," Dick said, ticking each one with his fingers, "philosophy, GSA, archery, and journalism to name a few."

"Hmm..."

"I might check out robotics and archery sometime. I've always wondered what it'd be like to use a bow. Well, gotta go. See you later!"

"What? Oh, bye."

Dick slipped into his next class, but not before hearing Artemis ask Bette what days archery club met.

The day turned out to be a lot more eventful than he had expected. It felt like one moment he was sitting in English class, waiting for the school day to end, the next, waking up to Bruce's gentle shaking. He blinked rapidly, realizing that he was lying on the cold concrete floor of Mount. Justice. He groaned as he sat up. "Batman..." he muttered.

"What happened?" Bruce asked.

Right. Briefing.

Artemis woke up a bit later. Dick didn't turn to look at her with Superman's announcement; he was just about finished with his report to Bruce. He was glad to know she was alright though.

Dick was ready to fall asleep by the time he and Bruce finally zeta-tubed back to Gotham. Once they entered the batmobile, Dick leaned back in his seat and dozed off. He remembered waking up with something heavy covering him as the batmobile slowed to a halt in the batcave. He pulled at it with his fingers. It was Batman's cape.

Still only half-awake, Dick barely stirred as Bruce picked him up and carried him to his room. Though he didn't mind being carried, he did wonder if he was still so small that Bruce could pick him up so easily.

They reached his room, and Dick stumbled out of Bruce's arms and groggily walked to his closet. As Bruce left and shut the door, Dick took off his Robin uniform and pulled on a large t-shirt and put on a pair of boxers. He was too tired to bother with shorts.

He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

School, thankfully, lacked the level of drama Mount Justice had had the previous night. Dick was looking forward to a boring, but relaxing day.

It was lab day in Biology, and the teacher assigned each student a partner. To Dick's surprise, he and Artemis were paired up. He grabbed his binder and book bag and joined her at her desk.

At her small yawn, he asked, "Rough night?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," she mumbled.

He sympathized with her. Most people, even superheroes, weren't used to functioning during the day with only four hours of sleep. Though Dick was used to his schedule, which required him to sleep only about three to four hours on a regular school day, he still felt beat today.

"So what are we supposed to do with this?" Artemis yawned again, gesturing at the pH strips in front of them.

"We're just testing the pH of all the solutions. Just grab a strip and dip it in one of them."

"Ugh, what is the point of this?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

"The teacher probably just gave us this lab so we had _something _to do today. I hate when they do things like that... it's just grunt work."

"Tell me about it. Just because we're younger, they think they can just give us a joke of a project to distract us. I'm tired of being treated like a kid."

Artemis' mouth opened slightly in surprise. She absentmindedly dipped a pH strip into one of the solutions as an uneasy silence settled between her and Dick. The chatter from other students around them made the silence seem all the louder. Dick set his arm upright on the table, setting his cheek in the palm of his hand. His eyebrows furrowed.

"By 'they', do you mean Bruce?" Artemis asked tentatively.

Dick, feeling his face heat, cursed in his head. He attempted to stretch, to get some feeling back into his arms, but he just moved rigidly, ungracefully. His throat felt dry, but he spoke anyways.

"Yeah."

"I guess being the ward of a multimillionaire doesn't always make life easier."

"Especially not with Bruce. Being the poster boy of Gotham forces you to put on a different face with everyone."

"Robin..." Artemis muttered.

Dick's heart skipped a beat. "What?"

"Oh, sorry, you just reminded me of a... friend I have" Artemis' voice took on the nervous pitch she used whenever she was fabricating an explanation, "He, uh, _she_ doesn't show it, but I can tell she gets pressured by her mentor a lot. I hadn't noticed it until yesterday, but, she really seems to be the type who wants to gain his approval."

"Ha," Dick rubbed his forehead, "Robin needs to work on her transparency."

"It's not that she's transparent! I think she needs to let out her emotions more. She has friends... I'm her friend... she doesn't need to hide so much," Artemis' cheeks were pink, "Um, but what I'm trying to say-! You shouldn't just keep all your secrets to yourself. Everyone needs someone they can depend on in tough situations... so, well..."

"That was cheesy."

Artemis flushed a dark red and turned her face away in embarrassment. "Little punk," she muttered.

Dick smiled. He patted her on the shoulder. "Thanks for the pep talk. I'll take it into consideration. Though," he looked at her with half-lidded eyes, "I think you should take your own advice too. _Your _friends will be there for you even with _your _secrets."

"What are you-?" Artemis' eyes widened.

"Nothing, nothing. Let's just finish the lab."

Once the bell rang, every student in the class rushed out the door. Artemis and Dick waited for the crowd to pass, and then walked out into the hallway. Dick waved goodbye to her as he entered his next class.

Six hours later, Dick was sitting with his team members at Mount Justice. They wanted answers, but the Justice League was being as secretive and elusive as ever. Dick was annoyed. Being kept in the dark was the worst.

Yet, as annoyed as he was, he did understand that sometimes people did need to keep secrets. He glanced at Artemis, who looked just as impatient as he felt.

Then all of a sudden, Superboy was gripping the front of Kaldur's costume in pure rage. Dick stood up in shock, watching as M'gann flew over and tried to stop Superboy. "Conner, what are you doing?" she said uneasily.

"Kaldur knew we had a traitor among us and said nothing!"

"You knew?" Dick felt a spike of anger.

"And didn't tell us?" Wally was right behind him.

It sucked being kept in the dark. It sucked to know that his leader, that _their _leader kept the team in the dark. He had wanted the secrets to be over. He wanted-

This situation was stupid.

There would always be secrets. Artemis had her secrets. Dick had his secrets. There should be no reason to be so angry at Kaldur. He probably had a reason why he didn't disclose the information to the team. People had reasons, that's why Artemis hasn't told the team about her family, that's why Dick hasn't told anyone but Wally about his secret identity.

Today wasn't the best day to take Artemis' advice. Not with the tense feeling that had gripped everyone in the team. He even found himself glaring at Kaldur, who was sitting in one of the front seats of M'gann's bioship.

The small voice in the back of his head scolded him. It told him to grow up.

However, Dick's anger clouded his judgement. He was still angry, and he was going to stay angry.

The bioship stopped, hovering above the spot the coordinates had directed them to. Dick and Artemis grabbed the handle of the lines and waited for the bottom of the ship to open. They dropped down. Artemis' long hair whipping around behind her.

That voice in his head again.

Everyone has a reason.


End file.
